The Washington Commanders recently released their initial 53-man roster, and the "Command Center" crew has thoughts on the team's decisions. Fred Smoot, Logan Paulsen and Santana Moss give their takes on the biggest standout topics.
What stands out from Washington's 53-man roster?
Athan Kaliakmanis makes the roster
Moss: He showed poise, to me, more than anything, and...watching his game for a while, I haven't seen in a preseason game...a rookie come in with that kind of poise. Don't get me wrong; I was with RG [Robert Griffin III], and I was with Kirk [Cousins]. I was there, so I understood, but...the poise stood out to me.
Smoot: Well deserved. I think he showed some arm strength. I'm gonna tell you what really stuck out to me about his whole game: nothing was ever too big for him ... He reminds me of a rookie, not playing style wise, but poise...Colt Brennen. That was my dude. I loved me some Colt Brennen, and when I say fearless, he was a legit trigger man.
Paulsen: I think there were times when AK kind of showed some of his youth. There's some huddle management, clock management, cadence. But I think what gets him to the roster is the talent. He showed some of that poise, that ball placement, that aggressiveness down the field. To me, with quarterbacks, it's just so hard to find traits that work in the NFL, and he showed traits.
The offensive line room
Paulsen: Tanoa Togiai was my guy from the jump. When I went and watched the UDFA class, I was like, "I think he's got a shot to make it." He's 6-6; he's 325-330. He's a former defensive lineman. He can run ... No one's had a more talked about rookie time here in Washington than Gulbin. I went back and watched all his film from the game. At center, he played really well. So, this isn't like, "Oh, here's a draft pick. Here's a bone. He played well enough to warrant this spot.
The linebacker position
Smoot: I think one thing about the middle linebacker section is that all these guys are athletic profilers off the chain. Even Kain Medrano can run. Jordan Magee can get out there and get it. When I look at them, nobody's there just because "I'm mentally good." Everybody's there because "I'm mentally good, plus I'm a hell of an athlete."
Paulsen: I think they're all above nine RAS [Relative Athletic Score]. Jordan was like 9.7; Kain was like 9.8. Leo Chenal was 9.9, and obviously Sonny was a 10 (unofficial).
Moss: Looking at this linebacker room, it's funny, because I visually the 2012 receiver corps that we had here. We had Pierre [Garcon]; we had myself, Leonard [Hankerson], Al [Aldrick Robinson], [Josh] Morgan. With all that being said, you look at that group of guys, and you're like, "Who's gonna play? Who's not gonna play?" And we all played, and there were certain packages we came in, and we all swapped out. I'm looking at these linebackers, knowing what we run and how we run things...but I'm very interested to see the different kind of packages that they put on the field because of what their skill set allow them to do."
